When compulsive and impulsive people make financial decisions their brain activity differs
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1
University of Newcastle, School of Psychology, Australia
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2
University of Newcastle, Clinical Psychology, Australia
Aims: In this study we hypothesized that impulsivity and compulsivity are associated with different brain activity patterns when financial decisions have to be made. Method: Via using a selected set of surveys we first grouped a sample of non-clinical volunteers into compulsive and impulsive and then we invited them to our laboratory in order to conduct an electroencephalography (EEG) study. A delay discounting task with various immediate small rewards versus delayed larger awards was used and participants had to choose between these two options. During their performance on the task brain activity was recorded with high temporal and spatial resolution. Results: Averaging brain activity patterns across all different reward conditions we found that compulsivity was associated with significantly higher brain activity over right frontal cortical areas compared to impulsivity regardless of the participants’ decisions. Conclusions: This finding demonstrates that neural processes during decision making differ between compulsive and impulsive people when financial decisions have to be made. At this stage, this finding cannot be generalized to any decision making, but it represents an interesting step into a promising future, where Neuroscience marries with Clinical Psychology for a best possible understanding of conditions such as compulsivity and impulsivity.
Keywords:
compulsivity,
impulsivity,
EEG/ERP,
Decision Making,
non-clinical populations
Conference:
ASP2013 - 23rd Annual meeting of the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology, Wollongong, Australia, 20 Nov - 22 Nov, 2013.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Other...
Citation:
Walla
P,
Beath
N and
Mobini
S
(2013). When compulsive and impulsive people make financial decisions their brain activity differs.
Conference Abstract:
ASP2013 - 23rd Annual meeting of the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2013.213.00043
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Received:
15 Oct 2013;
Published Online:
05 Nov 2013.
*
Correspondence:
Prof. Peter Walla, University of Newcastle, School of Psychology, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, peter.walla@webster.ac.at